Hey All,
My chance to have a liddle chat to you all from our travel blog 🙂
I know that you are there are many who wanting to know how I am going with the camping experience. Good news is that after the first night it all went very well.
Started the day off picking up our little car (we have named him Snoopy: see photos) from Auckland. We then hit the very scenic and gorgeous road through the centre of the North Island to Matamata. Very hilly green and windy – fantastic driving roads.
First stop: Hobbiton. Aww bless! The delightful location for the Hobbit town featured in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy. Unfortunately I cannot tell you anything more as Duncan and I have been sworn to secrecy after signing a Confidentiality Agreement (feeling very Secret Agent like). This is due to the upcoming filming of a…. I think I’ve said too much. It was wonderful see how they have adapted the location….. but, once again I cannot say anymore . SERIOUSLY, I’m not joking!
Next stop and our stop over for the night…the campsite. We set up our little tent which took no time at all –Mum – nothing like the old Polish tent which required ten men and a degree in engineering. I did catch myself thinking “I thought it was a little bigger than that”. Once finished we certainly looked very smart, if not a little too clean and bright, as we ripped open all our brand new camping gear.
The night got quickly chilly so Duncan and I braved the cool outdoors and put on our swimmer and scampered to the hot mineral pools located within the campsite – awesome! My Goosebumps quickly faded away as we immersed ourselves in 39 degree water. As we looked up at the stars with the mineral enriched steam swirling around our heads, we both agreed that our holiday and truly begun right here.
The dash out of the hot baths and into the chilly air was a little stressful due to the brisk 5 degree air temp. As a result I was very grateful as we snuggled into our down sleeping bags.
My first night camping was all in all very pleasant 🙂 The foam sleeping mat was surprising comfortable and my sleeping bag was so, so very warm. The little tent which we now call home was surprising cosy. Especially after Duncan and I watched an episode of Brothers and Sisters on our little laptop in our tent. It only took a couple of adjustments of my blow up pillow to get comfortable (helped to have the funky personalised pillow cases I made for Duncan and I 😉 ). The next morning was a lovely start to a cool crisp morning as Duncan brought me a steaming cup of tea in bed made on our awesome MSR camp stove.
